Stratford felon to serve jail time for possessing firearms

MADISON – A Stratford man who had six guns and the silencer said to be used in a Wausau homicide was sentenced Wednesday in federal court to five years, three months in prison for felon in possession of firearms.

Tyler R. Jenkins was about a year away from having his 2011 marijuana conviction expunged and could legally possess firearms when he sold one to a confidential informant. The informant told authorities, who searched Jenkins’ Stratford residence, recovering six firearms, including one which was stolen, two homemade hand grenades and a silencer that Assistant U.S. Attorney Rita Rumbelow said was used in the K.C. Elliott homicide.

John W. Lewis has been accused of shooting Elliott on Jan. 3 outside a Wausau tavern and is awaiting trial on homicide, felon in possession and related charges in Marathon County Circuit Court.

Jenkins told District Judge William Conley that he made the silencer just “to have something unique” and said it was out of his possession at the time of the shooting but later returned to him.

Rumbelow called Jenkins a “danger to the community,” deserving of at least a six-year sentence. She cited his tattoos of a drive-by shooting and his inmate number, that he had used methamphetamine and his ability to make hand grenades and a silencer from materials stolen from an employer.

“He’s proud to be a criminal, which is (corroborated) by his actions, his numerous traffic violations. He wasn’t a law-abiding citizen like he’d like you to believe; he flew under the radar,” Rumbelow told Conley.

Jenkins illegally possessed a rifle with a 30-round magazine, qualifying it as a semi-automatic weapon, said Rumbelow, making her wonder “what additional danger could he be if he used those weapons?”

Jenkins’ attorney, Michael Lieberman, called some of Rumbelow’s remarks, “rank, baseless speculation” and it does not make Jenkins into the “potential serial killer” Rumbelow wanted Conley to believe.

Conley said he was not factoring that into the sentencing decision, but wanted to know why Jenkins possessed the type of weapons and a silencer that would “more likely than not to be used to kill someone.”

Jenkins told Conley that firearms were his hobby and he made the grenades and silencer to have things most people could not possess.

Conley reminded Jenkins that his prior record prohibited him from possessing any firearms.

Jenkins, a welder with a short work history, disputed that he had a tattoo of a drive-by shooting by stating it was a design that “fit into the rest of my ink.”

Conley made Jenkins’ federal sentence concurrent to any sentence he would receive for similar firearm charges pending in Marathon County Circuit Court.

After the 63-month sentence, Jenkins will serve three years with supervised released.